EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The objective of this executive summary is to give an overview of the whole project process in cooperation with Raiffeisen Bank International, where the principles of “Design Thinking” have been applied. Hereby we would like to expound on the primary goal, the methodology applied and the concrete results of this project.

Goal

The main goal of the project was to get a deep understanding of the customer base in the three main target markets Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia in order to come up with valuable insights and prototypes which solve the pain points of the customer base. With an identified target group (<45 years old) the task was to explore their payment and lending use cases and also to ideate on useful digital features of a credit card and to figure out why clients use or do not use those cards. In fact, the challenge was to find suitable approaches for the identified problem in order to motivate customers to use credit cards more often. Equipped with the acquired information of the target markets the ultimate objective was to come up with concrete prototypes, which facilitate the user experience significantly and which further help to foster customer acquisition.

Methodology

By applying the iterative, human-centered approach of Design Thinking – comprising the five steps “Empathize”, “Define”, “Ideate”, “Prototype” and “Test” we tried to tackle RBI’s problem situation (how a fully digital credit card could look like, how to attract & engage new credit card clients; X-sell credit cards to existing client base, how to drive usage of credit cards) and come up with an innovative, future-oriented solution. As a first step, we conducted over 100 interviews in Austria, Slovakia and Czech Republic and were thereby able to get a deep understanding of the customer behavior and needs in order to come up with relevant ideas. Based on the interviews we conducted, we then identified 12 relevant Key Insights (KI) and developed 10 ideas within the “Define” and “Ideate” phase of the Design Thinking process. After careful consideration, evaluation and in coordination with the core findings of the interviews, we went through a process of quick prototyping to arrive at real-life solutions for the current problems and pain-points. After all, the iterative process of low-fidelity prototypes and testing, medium-fidelity prototypes and testing again allowed us to finally end up at high-fidelity prototypes, in order to best visualize and display how the final product could look like and how it could function.

Results

Over the last four months, the project team was primarily able to get a deep understanding of the Austrian credit card market, the commercial financial market in general and to identify the pain points and needs of an average customer. We came up with 12 relevant Key insights which show interesting trends in the user base. One of the most important aspects is that users want and need a better overview of their finances and that they often lack targeted incentivization and motivation to change the credit card provider. Furthermore, a highly interesting aspect was that users in Austria are almost afraid of taking a loan. In order to mitigate this fear and to create more precise and useful benefits for current and future customers, we brainstormed 10 valuable ideas, which can help in this matter. In coordination with our project partner, we ultimately arrived inter alia at the high-fidelity prototype of the created “Shared expense manager”. This tool facilitates the in-app expense sharing among friends and family by In-App bill scanning with AI, the ability to create groups for regular expense-sharing and a convenient "settle all" function. With the “Credit Card benefits configurator” customers can choose which features fit their needs the best. The targeted incentivization by offering benefits, which are high in demand, will help to attract new customers. Finally, the “Debt status Dashboard” mitigates the fear of taking a loan by giving on one hand full overview, flexibility and freedom and on the other hand delivering a self-explanatory app design with debt development forecasts.

Cooperation Partner

• Raiffeisen Bank International AG
  Am Stadtpark 9, 1030 Wien
  Austria
  www.rbinternational.com

Contact Person

• Emre Erol
  (emre.erol@rbinternational.com)

• Juraj Jurco
  (juraj.jurco@rbinternational.com)

• Katarina Boledovicova
  (katarina.boledovicova@rbinternational.com)

Student Team

• Fehrer Daniel

• Kuess Clemens

• Omerovic Vahidin

• Palesova Miroslava

• Tremmel Mathias

Project Manager

• Kommol Erik, MSc

• Kretzschmar Linn, MSc